Risk Free Rate
What is the risk free rate of return? How is the risk free rate of return calculated? Is a U.S. Treasury three-month bill the risk free rate?
The risk free rate of return is the amount of interest an investor would anticipate receiving from an investment with no potential downside. In reality, the risk free rate of return is only hypothetical as every investment carries at least a tiny amount of risk, if only related to a catastrophic event.
For this reason, the safest investment, though still not risk free, is seen as short-term U.S. Treasury bills which is why three-month bills are usually used as the risk free rate of return.